As forage material comes into a baler for making round bales, the material turns in the baling chamber around a rotational axis of formation, or the eventual cylindrical axis of the bale, which axis is transverse to the direction of forward travel of the baler as the bale is being formed. So when the bales are released from the rear of the baler, the cylindrical axis of the bale is still transverse to the direction of forward travel of the baler.
Since typically round bales are ejected from the baler with their axis perpendicular to the direction of travel, this means that current standard retrieval machines must also travel perpendicular to the field rows to line up with the bales and weave inefficiently throughout the field to get to each bale. In row crops, this also results in travelling across the field rows which is bumpy and can be uncomfortable for the operator and damaging to the equipment. Some current retrievers attempt to address this by twisting the bale on the field during pickup, but crops like corn stover bales on corn stubble fields can and are often damaged by this process resulting in a loss of the bale.
Additionally, if round bales are ejected on a slope such as hillsides they can roll downhill and be damaged or cause a dangerous situation. Operators try to compensate for this by manipulating the tractor/baler combination manually before ejecting the bale, but this process is time consuming and inaccurate. To solve this problem, bale turning devices for round balers have been developed.
Examples of balers with bale turning devices on them are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,033,172 to Simon, U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,550 to Goossen, U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,533 to Derscheid, U.S. Pat. No. 7,353,753 to Viaud and British Patent No. GB 2 292 335 to Rout, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
There is a growing interest in harvesting cellulose residue from row-crops for producing bio-fuels such as ethanol for producing energy. Corn, for example, is grown in rows where there are ridges of soil between rows of corn. So when a combine is used to harvest corn, the combine travels parallel to the rows so that the cutters go right down the rows. Another reason to have the combine go parallel to the rows is that it would be a very bumpy ride to travel across each ridge of each row. Similarly, when it comes time to bale corn stover, essentially the corn stalk, leaves and cobs less the corn which was harvested by the combine, it is much easier and more efficient for the baler to travel parallel to the rows than transverse to the rows. That results in bales that are released with the cylindrical axis of the bale transverse to the direction of the corn rows.
As mentioned above, loading those round bales dropped in a corn field to transport them from the corn field cannot be efficiently accomplished by merely traveling parallel to the corn rows because loading equipment requires that the bales be approached from the ends and not from the rounded sides. Furthermore bales from a baler are typically dropped to the ground as soon as they are formed so a new bale can be started. Therefore, even if the field is mostly flat, the cylindrical of the bales would rarely be anything close to being aligned with each other, requiring the bale loading equipment to weave all over the field to get aligned with an end of each bale individually.
If the bales of corn stover in a corn field, for each row of bales as they are being formed, could be turned so that the cylindrical of each bale was generally in alignment from one bale to the next in each row of bales, then bale loading equipment could just be driven through a corn field from one bale to the next bale, etc., in a direction parallel to the ridges in the corn field, to efficiently pick up and load bales without excessive repositioning of the bale loading equipment from one bale to the next adjacent bale. But the prior art bale turners are not entirely suitable for use in row crop fields such as corn fields. For example British Patent No. GB 2 292 335 to Rout uses ground engaging carriage wheels on his bale turner, which would not work well when crossing ridges between rows in a harvested corn field but would cause the carriage to bounce up and down when crossing the ridges.
Accordingly, an improved attachment to balers for accomplishing such general alignment of the cylindrical of each bale in each row of bales, especially in row crop fields, would be highly desirable for increasing the ease and efficiency of loading and removing the bales from the field.